Solid vs. Engineered Hardwood: Making The Right Choice

What Are The Key Differences Between Solid Hardwood And Engineered Hardwood? 

Standing at the crossroads of solid versus engineered hardwood? You're not alone. This definitive guide takes you through everything you need to know to make the right choice for your home or project.

Hunter Ross, with over 20 years in the building products industry, breaks down the fundamental differences between these popular flooring options. Engineered hardwood, with its plywood base and hardwood veneer top layer (ranging from 2-4mm thick), offers remarkable stability and installation speed. A typical 2,000 square foot project can be completed in just five days – roughly one-third the time required for solid hardwood. Modern manufacturing techniques have revolutionized engineered products, creating finishes that often outperform traditional hardwood in scratch resistance while allowing for wider planks without stability concerns.

Solid hardwood remains the gold standard for complete customization. From intricate herringbone and chevron patterns to decorative borders and inlays, solid hardwood transforms your floor into a truly bespoke feature. The installation process involves multiple layers (moisture barrier, plywood, felt) before the wood is secured with specialized fasteners. After installation, the floor undergoes professional sanding and finishing, allowing for completely custom colors and effects. While this extends the timeline to approximately three weeks, the results can be spectacular.

Ready to transform your space with the perfect hardwood floor? Call 972-525-0026 for a free in-home consultation or visit our website to learn more about working with a team that values honor, quality, and expertise.

To learn more about Wood Floors of Dallas visit:
https://www.WoodFloorDallas.com
Wood Floors of Dallas
159 W. Main St., Suite 200
Lewisville, Texas 75057
972-525-0026

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Wood Floors of Dallas podcast, where
we bring expert insights onhardwood flooring design and
craftsmanship, hosted by HunterRoss, owner of Wood Floors of
Dallas, with over 20 years inthe building product industry.
Whether you're a homeowner or ageneral contractor, we're here

(00:27):
to help you create amazingspaces with honor, quality and
expertise.
Let's get started.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Not sure whether to go with solid or engineered
hardwood.
You're not alone.
In this episode.
Hunter breaks down the pros,cons and perfect scenarios for
both so you can make the rightchoice for your home or project.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm Sofia Yvette, co-host,slash producer, back in the
studio with Hunter Ross, ownerof Wood Floors of Dallas.

(01:06):
Hunter, how's it going today?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Good Sophia, how are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
I'm doing good also, and that is great to hear.
So, hunter, for our listenerswho may not know what are the
key differences between solidhardwood and engineered hardwood
that's a great question.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
It's a really big question that a lot of people
have, and so we'll kind of justdive into the key features of
solid hardwood and then the keyfeatures of engineered and give
people a real kind of in-depthdive of which ones are best for
your home and the benefits andfeatures to doing each one right
.
So, starting with engineeredhardwood, what it is is a

(01:53):
plywood base and it has a veneeror a top layer of what we would
call a solid hardwood piece onthe top of it.
Usually that top layer orveneer is anywhere from two
millimeters to four millimetersthick.
The thicker ones can berefinished.
So after you've installed yourengineered hardwood, it's lasted

(02:15):
many, many years and then youwould like to either refresh it,
make it all brand new again orchange the color.
With the thicker, thicker toplayers you can go ahead and
re-sand and refinish them toyour liking.
So in engineered hardwood, mostof the products in that
category do have a twomillimeter or below veneer and

(02:36):
they're really not designed tobe refinished.
The reason being is because thecoatings that are put on them
are so good, the finishing linesare state the art, and that is
pretty much with almost allmanufacturers today.
Those engineered products andthe finishing lines in the past
were not that great.
But the technology has advancedso far that now your engineered

(02:57):
hardwood is truly built betterand is more resilient to
scratches and things like thatthan a solid hardwood is Okay
and that can be argued,depending on who you talk to.
But if you really get down tothe technical details, it really
is just a more perfect finish.
So in engineered hardwoodthere's a million different

(03:18):
colors and sizes and patternsand all the things that you can
get, but also you're notcreating a custom color, right.
So engineered hardwoodsbenefits are primarily speed of
installation time.
It takes roughly about onethird of the time for
installation if you can, youknow, put it up against solid
hardwood.
So let's say, within five daysyou can have 2000 square feet of

(03:42):
your home with brand new floorsfrom start to finish in five
days.
Okay, so very quick to install.
It goes down with adhesive,it's glued to the concrete or
you know whatever subfloorplywood depending on if you're
upstairs or downstairs and itgoes in quickly and you can get
really wide planks because it'sso stable.

(04:03):
That's very popular witheverybody these days.
They're just gorgeous, big,wide boards that you can see
very well.
So that's engineered hardwoodand then in solid hardwood it's
kind of like the world is youroyster.
You can really have anythingthat you want.
Obviously there's more artinvolved, it's way more
technical, the installation isand it takes much more time to

(04:24):
complete.
But at the end of the day youcan make that floor completely
custom However you want it.
You can do all kinds ofpatterns in the floor chevrons
and herringbones and all thesetypes of things borders, inlays
you can get really, reallyintricate with whatever you're
putting on the ground.
Borders, inlays you can getreally really intricate with
whatever you're putting on theground.
So in like a really nice customhome.
A lot of people are just in lovewith the beautiful look and

(04:46):
final finish of a solid hardwood.
Right, and to go into theprocess basically, if you have a
concrete subfloor in your home,we will put down a six mil poly
as a moisture barrier and thenyou'll get three quarters inch
plywood and then felt, which iskind of the same thing as
roofing felt, if you want tothink of it that way, but

(05:08):
there's a felt layer and thenthe solid hardwood goes on top
of that and then it's installedwith fasteners which are called
cleats or nails, basically, andthose cleats go from the top of
it and it's secured into theplywood subfloor and that's how
that's installed.
And then the sanding andfinishing process starts, where
we sand it with multipledifferent grits to get it to a

(05:31):
very nice finish.
We then stain it and then wefinish it with your choice of
coating.
One good thing for everybody toknow is that there's two main
types of coatings.
There is a polyurethane finishwhich is either two or three
coats.
We always do three coats ofpolyurethane.
This is what we would consider aprofessional grade polyurethane
.
It's not something that you canpick up at a Home Depot or

(05:53):
Lowe's or any kind of store likethat.
It is a very specializedproduct for what we do, and so
the finish of the regularpolyurethane is that's your
standard, and then you have anupgrade option to something, for
example, that's way moredurable, that does not Amber or
yellow.
And your regular polyurethanedoes Amber over time.

(06:14):
That's a natural part of it anda lot of people really just
like that.
It gives it a lot of richnessover time.
But some people don't.
They want to really clear, likemore light color.
A lot of people really justlike that it gives it a lot of
richness over time.
But some people don't.
They want to really clear, likemore light color, a lot of
times, and so we use awater-based finish called Bona
Traffic HD, and that productspecifically is no or low VOC.
The ones that we use are no VOC, which is very nice.

(06:37):
Your regular polyurethane is avery strong smell.
It's a very strong odor.
It cures a lot slower and soyou have a lot more dry time
after that finish is applied,compared to doing like this Bono
water-based product with noVOCs.
That product cures withinroughly 48 hours to almost 95%

(06:58):
hardness.
So there's a big differencebetween those two as far as
their durability and their drytimes.
Both of them are durable, butthe benefit of the Bona is
primarily you get a significanthigher level of abrasion
resistance than you do to aregular polyurethane finish.
Specifically, what that meansis you're not going to walk

(07:23):
through the finish with regulareveryday use.
That bone of traffic HD isgoing to be at least three to
four times stronger, if not more, but for sure three to four
times stronger than your regularpolyurethane finish, with a
caveat of all wood scratches,and I think that's really
important for everybody to knowI say this to the clients all

(07:44):
the time we're just cutting atree down, which is outside, and
then we're putting it on theground, and so it is not a rock
and it is not concrete, it isjust a limb.
Basically it's just wood.
So all hardwoods, floors of allkinds can ding and scratch and
dent.
It's just natural, it's part ofnature, and so we like to make

(08:05):
sure clients understand that.
It just adds character.
These floors have been going infor hundreds and hundreds of
years and that's what makes thembeautiful and the maintenance
on them.
You can keep them up for a verylong time, right, so they'll
last forever.
But those are the primary twotypes of finishes that you'll

(08:26):
get on a solid hardwood product.
And then, as far as likeinstallations go, I know we
touched on this a little bitbefore in a previous podcast,
but the installation process ofa hardwood floor is roughly
about a 21 day cycle, of a solidhardwood floor is about a 21
day cycle, and the installationof an engineered hardwood is
around a seven day cycle.
That includes, you know, havingyour furniture moved out of the

(08:48):
home, the work being done, allcompleted, and then having your
furniture moved back in.
Okay, so just to really diveinto the solid hardwood process
and hit all the main points,you're going to deliver the
material to the job site.
It's going to acclimate for aweek to get regulated to the
relative humidity inside thehome, make sure it's balanced,

(09:10):
then it gets installed.
The installation takes about aday and then it'll sit in place
for another five to seven dayswhile it equalizes installed.
Then we come in, we do thesanding and finish process,
whatever stain color you liked,et cetera.
So we do that sanding andfinish process and that takes
around four to five days total.
So if you add it all up, you'relooking at roughly 21 days for

(09:33):
a solid hardwood installation.
If you add it all up, you'relooking at roughly 21 days for a
solid hardwood installation.
And then really with engineeredhardwood, we can put in
thousands and thousands ofsquare feet of engineered
hardwood in like roughly five,six days.
And one important thing that Iwant everybody to know about
engineered hardwood and alsoreally on click lock floors,
just so you know, thepreparation of the slab of the

(09:56):
base is the most important thing.
We spend a significant amountof time and effort and energy
and money making sure that thesubfloor is as flat as possible.
Most companies don't do thatbecause they don't realize that
part of it can be the mostdetrimental to the success of a
flooring project.
Not only does it make it harderto install, but it creates be
the most detrimental to thesuccess of a flooring project.
Not only does it make it harderto install, but it creates a

(10:18):
lot of tension in the floor.
The adhesives that we use toglue the product down are very
strong.
They're made to do their jobvery well.
As soon as they grab the floorand they grab the underside of
the floor, it will suck itselftogether.
It's an extremely strongadhesive.
Wow, floor, it will suck itselftogether Like it's extremely

(10:39):
strong adhesive.
What happens, though, is if youhave dips and you have raises
in your floor, you're creatingso much like force and tension
up and down on the floor thatyou can create major problems
that result in a wood floorinstallation failure If you
don't properly do this.
The other part of it is thatyou'll get a lot of hollow
points, a lot of hollow soundsin your installation.

(11:00):
Properly float that floor andmake it very flat.
So slab preparation is superkey, very important.
We spend a lot of time, like Isaid, making sure that that
surface is flat.
We use floor float to fill inthe low spots and we grind the
high spots with grinders and youstart with a nice clean slate
and then the installation goesvery, very smoothly.
The end result is that thatfloor is going to last basically

(11:23):
forever, right.
So key things there withengineered hardwood is really
focusing on getting the slabflat and we can put it in in
roughly about a week, no matterhow much it is.
If it's like 4 000 5 000 squarefeet, which we do, that
sometimes that'll take two weeks, but almost all projects are
done within about five days.
Did I cover all of it?

Speaker 2 (11:47):
I think you most certainly did well, hunter.
Thank you so much for sharingthose helpful insights with our
listeners today.
We'll catch you in the nextepisode and have a fantastic
rest of your day.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Thanks for tuning in to Wood Floors of Dallas podcast
.
Ready to transform your space?
Ready to transform your space?
Call 972-525-0026 for a freein-home consultation or visit
woodfloordallascom to learn more.
Work with honor, build withexcellence.

(12:27):
See you next time.